John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana

[93] of which 19, receiving an aggregate of 590,000 francs, were at Paris. The rest were from the near-by country provinces. There were only 392 applications in all from 82 different branches of industry calling for about 25,000,000 francs, in sums averaging about 500 francs, or $100 each. Of these 132 were conclusively rejected for one reason or another, but mostly because they did not come within the terms of the law. It is worthy of notice that Dana visited a number of these aided associations at their places of business, and was everywhere received with the greatest politeness. The rules, regulations, working hours, conditions of the trades, and the division of the profits were explained without reservation, and in many cases he received such favorable impressions as seemed to justify the desire for fuller information, but unfortunately Dana's stay abroad was too short to permit an exhaustive study of these interesting experiments. So far as can be ascertained, he did not follow them up after his return home, and the probability is their success, however promising at the time, was partial and short-lived. The absence of sufficient capital to meet the growing requirements of the undertakings, and of an efficient and continuous management with an equitable and certain division of the profits, to say nothing of competition, must have proved fatal to these associations, as they have to every similar undertaking from that day to this. And so far as Dana is concerned, these results only go to prove that the world was not sufficiently advanced to accept the theories, or to share the confidence on which they were founded.